There are five characters to choose from to play as, and each of those five give you the option of being male or female. I have played as the monk, and am currently going through as a wizard chick who I named Ikol after Loki’s bird in the comic books.

Character to play as in Diablo III

You can have multiple players on the same screen. That was a big deal to me when I first started playing because I was so insecure. Master Betty, my hubby, was leveled-up really high, but he played along with me and had his barbarian, Keldon, simply stand to the side and ‘hang out’ so that I could battle on my own and level up, yet if I got lost or panicked he could step over there and rescue me. He had already beaten the game on his own several times, so it wasn’t long before he became immersed in his other games, but by then I was brave enough to battle evil on my own…so I continued to play until my eyes bled. And yes, we do have two televisions side-by-side and sit next to each other gaming, sometimes even wearing headphones for new games or having the volume up on the ones with the best scores when playing older games. I LOVE the score for Diablo III, and I very much enjoy everything that my follower, Templar yells during game play!

“EVIL HAS BEEN REBUKED!!!!” ~ Templar

The replay value is superb!!!! Yip-yip! I adore my follower, Templar, and his conversations the entire time! He says my favorite types of phrases, such as, “Treasure unimaginable!” At some point I want to try playing through with different followers because they each have their own unique stories and separate randomly generated phrases for game play. The characters you play as also have their own unique qualities and little variations in the story here and there. Details like these in the characters and followers make the game feel almost brand new at times! I’ll be playing this for sooooooooo long! I’m never going to sell or trade it!

Followers to choose from in Diablo III

The controls are so responsive that I never have to button-mash at all! I just set them to anything I might need and memorize what they’ll do, and it works for me how and when I need it! The story line is intriguing, and the cut scenes make my artistic brain implode and then explode in awe, especially closer to the end! The villains are well developed and I just wanna GET THOSE BAD GUYS!

I also finally gathered everything to make the Staff of Herding to get into Whimsyshire, and I went there! The unicorns and bears attacked me so adorably! There were cupcakes! Then I upgraded the Staff of Herding and went back to Whimsyshire on Nightmare Mode! The layout was different, but I don’t know if it changes per level or if it’s randomly generated like all the other settings, but it was still so kewl! You have to beat each level completely before you can upgrade the staff for that level, so as a completionist I’m going to beat the last level, Inferno, and visit Inferno Whimsyshire! If you want to make it to Whimsyshire and have no idea where to start, you can get help here on the Diablo wiki site, or here on IGN.

When I playing through on Nightmare Mode I equipped my wizard chick with all kinds of ‘magic find’ stuff and slowly built up the most awesome equipment. It’s still working for me up in Inferno Mode, so much so that even though I leveled up Haedrig the Blacksmith all the way, there still isn’t anything more powerful to make!

A question for you: Do you notice the changes in the shops as you level up the smithy and the jeweler?

I didn’t notice until I leveled up Covetous Shen, the jeweler, all the way and his shop became lined with royal purple accents! Then I went to check Haedrig’s shop and, sure enough, his shop had changed too and I’d missed it! I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t leveled them up, but if you have and you missed it as you went along, or you don’t mind the spoilers and are just curious, you can see it here for Haedrig and here for Covetous Shen.

Haedrig the blacksmith and Covetous Shen the jeweler in Diablo III

You’re probably not surprised that my rating for this game is five out of five hearts! I can’t say it does or does not deserve a ‘green fan-favorite’ heart, though, because I have not played any of the previous Diablo games, so I don’t know how long-time fans should feel as far as overall tone/feel of the game being true to Diablo style and imagination. I can say that I’m excited for the expansion pack, Reaper of Souls, to come out in August, so I need to buy the PS4 version of Diablo III because I think it’s only available on there and not the PS3. It’s supposed to be pretty big, as in having a lot to do and taking quite awhile to finish; 7 hours for the main story, over 10 hours including extras, and over 52 hours for completionists, like me! Lurvz!!! There’s going to be a mystic that you can level up just like the jeweler and the blacksmith in the expansion pack, too!